World’s richest man now worth Sh21 trillion

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has officially become the first person to be worth over Sh21 trillion.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index, Bezos is now worth an eye-watering Sh21.8 trillion.

That means Bezos is now Sh8.4 trillion richer than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is currently the second richest person in the world.

The value comes amid an increase in Amazon’s stocks by 2.85 per cent, meaning the company is now worth more than Sh183.9 trillion.

While Sh21 trillion is an unbelievable amount of money, estimates suggest that Bezos’ earnings could skyrocket in the coming years, and could even make him a trillionaire in just six years.

A recent study by Comparisun indicates that Bezos could become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026.

In the study, Comparisun analysed market capitalisation of the 25 highest valued companies on the New York Stock Exchange, and the net worth of the world’s 25 wealthiest people over the last five years.

They then calculated the average yearly percentage growth, applying that growth rate for future years to come.

The findings suggest that Bezos could be worth $1,000,000,000,000 in just six years.

Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon, which is one of the few companies to have benefited from the coronavirus pandemic.

According to MarketWatch, Amazon sales topped Sh8.1 trillion in the first quarter, largely driven by a surge in at-home deliveries.

However, Amazon has also pledged to spend Sh433 billion on developing coronavirus testing capabilities for all its employees, improving cleaning of its facilities, and increasing wages for hourly teams.

Richest people in the world

1. Jeff Bezos – Sh21.8 trillion
2. Bill Gates – Sh13.4 trillion
3. Mark Zuckerberg – Sh12.4 trillion
4. Elon Musk – Sh10.9 trillion
5. Bernard Arnault – Sh9.3 trillion
6. Warren Buffett – Sh8.8 trillion
7. Mukesh Ambani - $81.1 billion
8. Steve Ballmer - $79.3 billion
9. Larry Page - $77.9 billion
10. Sergey Brin - $75.5 billion